VA changing the day of flight

Hi, has anyone anyone any experience of this , we have booked and paid for a holiday - supposedly leaving on 22nd Jan MAN to MCO - now it appears that we have been changed to 21st Jan - but have no information from VA other than that, despite many efforts from myself to find out as to what the actual arrangements are.

This is the first time in many years of travelling that i have had a flight brought forward by 24 hrs ! and I must admit I am more that disappointed by VA's seemingly lack of any care about this !

Has this happened to anyone else ?

Cheers

Ian

Always a tad annoying when plans get messed up like this, especially for those of us that spend so long piecing everything together! Unfortunately airlines do change schedules from time to time and cancel/consolidate quiet flights.

When you say 'booked and paid for a holiday' are you referring to a package of flight, hotel etc or do you mean a holiday that you have booked as component parts yourself?

If it's a package holiday then it's actually the responsibility of the travel agent to inform you of the change and it would be up to them to make whatever arrangements were necessary.

If it's a flight-only booking made directly with the airline then indeed they should have contacted you - presumably you discovered the change via 'Manage My Booking'?

If you booked via Expedia or some other agent then they should let you know of the change.

Since the change is significant, if it's a flight-only booking you should have the option of changing the booking to a more convenient departure- in your case that might mean pushing it back rather than moving it forward as they have already done. There's also the possibility that you could take a different route, with a stop - depending on what you're destination is. This probably wouldn't be offered but if you ask nicely I would have thought try would do it. Alternatively you would be able to ask for full refund and have the possibility of rebooking yourself on a different airline.

we booked the whole package through Virgin Holidays - and yes I discovered the change via "Manage My booking" and have had it confirmed by them, but nothing else. Our package is 7 nights in Disney then a 7 night cruise - so the latter part is pretty un-movable - I have been promised a call tomorrow to let me know what is happening - we shall see :(

Presumably they will offer you an additional nights accommodation at the start of your trip.

Otherwise ask them to route you MAN-JFK on Delta with an onward connection to MCO. Alternatively you could get the train and go from Gatwick?

Weirdly, I've just logged in and have this notice at the top of the Manage my Booking page for my LGW-MCO flight in October:-

SCHEDULE CHANGE
We're very sorry, but there has been a change affecting your booking. Please click 'Accept' to acknowledge this change and view your updated itinerary. Once you accept, you may be eligible to change your flight(s) at no extra cost. There has been a change in the flight schedule which affects your booking. If you're happy with the changes, please click 'Accept flight changes' to continue.

The return flight is the one marked as having a change. Oddly, the departure time is the same, but the arrival time now says:-

Arrive: 10:45
Scheduled: 09:45

(The original arrival was 09:45)

Anyone know why this would be the case?

Is the flight in question between October 29th & November 4th?

If so, it might be because that's the week when the clocks have gone back in the UK but not yet in the US. As there's only a 4 hour difference between GMT and EST that week, arrival in the UK will be an hour later but the actual flight duration doesn't change.

Is the flight in question between October 29th & November 4th?

25th October

Is the flight in question between October 29th & November 4th?

If so, it might be because that's the week when the clocks have gone back in the UK but not yet in the US. As there's only a 4 hour difference between GMT and EST that week, arrival in the UK will be an hour later but the actual flight duration doesn't change.

US clocks go back an hour on Sunday 5th November 2017 which is actually a week later than our change which will be on Sunday 29th October.

Their clocks go forward on Sunday March 12th, two weeks before we move forward an hour.

So doesn't seem that the clock calendar affects the flight timing on 25th October.

I have a trip booked for Sep next year and noticed yesterday on my account (no email received) that both my outbound and inbound flights have been moved forward 1 day. I don't mind going a day earlier but can't come back earlier as I have booked other things.

Spoke to Flying Club this morning who said that its a computer issue (surprise!) and that I should not try to change anything and it will revert back to original booking soon!

How long soon is they did not say....

I am still waiting to hear from the mysterious and un-reachable "flight change" team ( it seems a bit perverse that VA have a team whose sole purpose it is to change your flights and screw up your holiday !)
No reason has yet been given for the change not for the lack of them actually telling me it has changed - the only response from Customer Services - they are very bust at the moment !

It's a strange way for a company to tell me they do not want my business !

What about your return date, has that been moved?
You should be entitled to some sort of compensation for the move.
Plus you can argue any out of pocket expenses for hotel, extra meals, etc.

Just curious, its not something sill like a 00:30 flight being brought forward to 23:45 ???

There will be no compensation for the change. Nor will VS reimburse out of pocket expenses. Nor would any airline who does this.

There will be no compensation for the change. Nor will VS reimburse out of pocket expenses. Nor would any airline who does this.

Compensation should be due because of the shortness of notice.
This is VH not VS issue

Yes, if your booking is with VIrgin Holidays it is their responsibility, not the airline's, to inform you of any changes.

Even though it's Virgin Atlantic who've changed the flight, they cannot touch your booking as your contract is with VH.

Under VH's T&Cs it would seem you're entitled to £25 compensation per adult (and less for children) for a delay of at least 12 hours that you were notified about between 29 and 84 days before the flight.

There will be no compensation for the change. Nor will VS reimburse out of pocket expenses. Nor would any airline who does this.

Compensation should be due because of the shortness of notice.
This is VH not VS issue

If VS have changed the date (but see later) then they would be responsible for paying any compensation under EU261. But they have given more than 14 days notice so none is due under the regulation.

VH are the ones responsible for informing the OP about the change.

BUT I have seen several comments on here and flyer talk that there is a major mess up with the booking system and all sorts have flight changes have been made for some unknown reason when in reality the flights have not been changed / cancelled despite with MMB is saying.

It could very well be the OP is caught up in this mess and his flight hasn't changed at all.

I read this post yesterday and thought hmmm, maybe I had better check my flights ( 2 in March , 2 in May ) , March one is fine , my May one however is now showing my return flight as TWO days earlier - this is the first I had heard of it ( through mmb) , nobody has contacted me to make me aware of it .
Bad enough that Virgin expect me to lose two whole days of holiday that I have paid for and hotel rate is non refundable but my new expected return flight is on Tuesday the 9th of May ( instead of Thursday 11th May) which is the actual date of the wedding that I was flying out to attend .
Can't get Ho,d of anyone at Virgin to discuss this ( being Christmas Eve) . What an absolute catastrophe . Thanks Virgin you've just totally blown not only my travel plans but after finding this out my Christmas is shot to pieces too !

Dougal,

Sorry to hear about the issues with the flight. I'm certainly no Virgin apologist but I'm almost certain that this will turn out to be an IT issue that will be easily resolved.

You don't mention your destination but it's unlikely that you've picked somewhere that VS have withdrawn from and DL haven't absorbed. In the worst case where there really is no flight on 11 May any more it should be a simple matter to switch you to a flight after the wedding rather than before.

Enjoy the festive season with your family then call flying club afterwards, I'm sure it can be sorted with minimal issues.

--------------------------------

REALLY MASSIVE EDIT:

From another forum post you made I have deduced you are actually flying HAV - LGW on 11 May. If that's wrong then everything that follows is also wrong.

The flight operates Mon, Thur and Sat right now but from Apr 17 I think I'm right in saying the Sat rotation is being removed and replaced by a Sunday flight to Varadero to better serve the beach holiday market. Mon and Thur remain as Havana.

According to my calendar, 11 May is a Sat, so basically your flight has been deleted and (despite what I said in the first edit of this post, Delta are not covering the slack). There will remain options to fly home on 11 May via ATL using a Delta connection but nothing direct.

My advice would be to research your options and know what you want to swap to when you call up.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Reading this thread prompted me to check my booking to MIA in April, and yes, the time has been brought forward by 90 mins. Not a problem per se, but I have a CDC booked using miles.

It says I can change the pick-up time via Manage Your Booking, but I can't see anywhere to access it, so is the only way to ring the FC and W A I T on the end of the telephone?

Stuart f - that's not my post about flying from Havana - I was supposed to flying from Cancun on the 11th may which is a Thursday .
Virgin have now cancelled all of the Thursday flights from Cancun . Only options are the Tuesday 9th ( meaning that I will miss the wedding ) or the following Saturday (13th) , which is not possible as I have to be in the uk by the 12th to meet other commitments .
Contacted flying club who wanted to fly me back via Havana on the Thursday ( no thanks) , totally cheesed off with virgin and their lack of customer care .
Seems there are several people in a similar boat to me looking at other posts but they all seem to be getting a good outcome via flying club , but I seemed to have got the tea boy with a hangover when I spoke to them yesterday so will try again tommorrow in the hopes of getting something sorted

First time poster, but felt the need to share my experience with this!

I (was) booked on to fly back from Cancun on Thursday 22nd June this year. Almost £10k spent on this holiday for 2 people, return UC flights. First time UC flyers - really looking forward to the stress free experience!

I've logged into My Booking tonight, only to find this extremely useful notice:

"We're very sorry, but there has been a change affecting your booking. If you are not happy with your new itinerary, you may be eligible to change your flight(s) at no extra cost."

You bet I'm not happy. Virgin have cancelled my flight and are now bringing me home 2 days earlier - without any notice.

So, not only am I two days short on my holiday, I'm also losing out on an excursion booked on the 21st (£400 lost), and the hotel won't refund the final two days. The only option Virgin can give me is that I return on the 24th - they were keen to point out they'd do this for no extra charge, apart from the extra hotel bill I'll need to pay for!

I understand that rightly or wrongly, airlines are allowed to change schedules after bookings are made. What I don't understand is how unwilling Virgin are to help, and that they didn't even bother to call me.

First time UC flyer. After this... probably last time, too.

So much for a stress free relaxing holiday!

I wonder if anyone has ever taken these kind of occurrences to Court?

Forget what their Terms say they can and can't do in regards changes, it sounds like basic breach of contract law which they should be held accountable for.

My recent experience with Virgin Holidays hasn't been great. I was affected by a flight change which cocked up transport arrangements both here and NYC so I cut my losses and got out of the deal.

Earlier today I secured the same trip but with Net Flights with an additional adult, a nicer hotel and ended up saving £450

I wonder if anyone has ever taken these kind of occurrences to Court?

Forget what their Terms say they can and can't do in regards changes, it sounds like basic breach of contract law which they should be held accountable for.

Given that you're offered the option to cancel for a full refund I can't see you'd have a leg to stand on I'm afraid.

Airline schedule changes are, alas, very common and when you book many months in advance they're more likely to happen than not.

Any incidental costs like non-cancellable hotel bookings or car hire change fees should be covered by your travel insurance. That's what it's there for.

Is this happening to everyone?

I've been shifted back a day to Boston, from 18th of August, to 17th of August, from 13:05 flight to 17:25 flight...

Never had a day schedule change in my life before...

Strikes me as mistakes more than anything...

And yep, no notice of change.